One Night to Change a Life
by EmeraldFire512
Summary: In one night, all that Remus Lupin knew and held dear was destroyed. His reactions to the night of October 31, 1981. Please R,R, and enjoy!


**A/N: **So. It's been a while hasn't it. Quite some time…

But I do have my reasons. However; as they are numerous and complicated, I shall refrain from conveying them and just settle it all with a simple apology. So, to all of you (if any) who have been wondering when I would return, I am sorry for making you wait. On the bright side, I am back into the swing of things (for the tie being) and the next chapter of The Mauraders and Lily Read HBP is about half way done. So you can look for that soon. As for my other stories… I'll get to them eventually.

But this story was inspired by a fic called **Remembering **by Blonde-Titch. It deals with Remus' reaction to the events of October 31, 1981. Hope you enjoy it.

**One Night to Change a Life**

A hooded figure approached the wreckage of a house. He stepped over the remnants of what used to be a neat white picket fence and out of habit turned to where the front door had been a mere 36 hours ago. A passerby watching would have deduced that this man had been familiar with this sight before its destruction by the way he slowly wandered with purpose, as if he could still see the cozy brick cottage in his mind's eye. A calloused hand slowly reached up to draw down his hood, revealing a man who seemed to be young, despite the faint lines on his face and the sporadic grey streaks throughout his otherwise sandy hair. However, tonight the aspect of his appearance that seemed to age him most were his eyes. These eyes were light brown, with specks of gold. But they had a hardness to them, as if they had seen too much horror in their time. As he gazed upon the wreckage before him, these hardened eyes grew glossier as unshed tears gathered at the gates, waiting for the dams to break.

As Remus Lupin gazed upon the debris in Godric's Hallow, his mind skimmed through the catalog of better times. Within the house whose splinters he now stood upon, he had laughed, eaten, slept, talked, and loved for nearly three years. An eternity in the eyes of most 21 year-olds, but much too short for Remus' liking. It had been within the walls of this house that he had been accepted, loved, and treated as an equal. Within the walls of this house had resided all of the people for whom Remus had cared the most in the world.

The house had been owned by Lily and James Potter, his best friend and his wife. The house was also the unofficial primary residence of his other two best friends, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. These people had known Remus for the better part of his life, and had been the first people to not only except him for who, or more acurrately what, he was, but to embrace it and him. In this house Remus had known love, and affection.

Remus continued to walk to where the living room ought to have been, and bent over to retrieve a small splotch of color amongst the darkness and despair of the rest of the scene. It seemed to been a piece of a toddler's jumper. Remus hand began to shake as her remembered Lily knitting one with this pattern just last week.

Harry.

Harry had survived. This Remus knew, it was all he had heard as he wandered down the streets today, too numb to do anything else. Harry had survived, but Remus was not sure if he was overly happy about this. Yes, the darling boy that Remus loved more than just about anything in the world was alive, but he would have to grow up in a world without his parents. As it was, Remus had no idea where the boy had been taken. Dumbledore had made the arrangements. As much as Remus knew that James would have wanted one of his friends to raise his son, it was not going to be a possibility. Remus knew that there was no way the ministry would ever sign off on something like him raising the Boy-Who-Lived. And Sirius and Peter...

More tears gathered as his thoughts turned to his other two friends. One dead, the other in prison for not only killing the other, but also betraying his closest friend to the darkest wizard in the world.

And now they were all gone.

Remus did not have many people in his life that he cared for. There were only five, and there were only five that loved him back. Now they were all gone, in one form or another. In less than 36 hours, his world had been destroyed, fileted, and then crushed for good measure.

James.

Lily.

Sirius.

Peter.

Harry.

They were all gone.  
There was no one left for him.

Remus closed his eyes as he tightened his grip around the scrap of jumper. As he did, several tears leaked out. He wiped them away impatiently and shoved the bit of memory into his pocket. It was time to bury his emotions now. There was work to be done. As he sifted through the rubble, memories of happiness drifted around his head. But the echoes of the celebrations he had passed on his way here over took them. The world was happy and at ease tonight, but Remus Lupin knew that such days would not return to him for a very long time.


End file.
